http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lAn-acLxC8
when you seek Christ – you find Him.
There isn't a time in my life that I can remember not knowing God, knowing about Him, and knowing that I belonged with Him. Because of that – it was relatively normal to have a relationship with Him, but that's all it was – normal.
not exciting. not necessary. not desired.
just…
normal.
That "normalcy" kind of creeped in to the way I saw everything, including myself. I didn't feel exciting, necessary, or desired. In fact, I felt the opposite. I felt unseen, unneeded. I never felt beautiful enough, pretty enough, smart enough, _____ enough.
"ENOUGH!!"
Two years ago, I decided that I had had enough with that mindset. So, with the help of two very close friends, I asked them to begin to pray with me that I would see myself as God saw me and that I would see His creation as He sees it.
There was definitely not an immediate transformation, as I had hoped. Nor was there overnight fixing. But there was a shift in perspective. A s l o w movement began in my heart as I allowed myself to be pursued by the One true Creator and Lover of my soul.
What I needed was to stop striving to be pursued by society. What I needed was to start pursuing the nature of my Creator. CS Lewis said it best in Mere Christianity:
"The more we get what we call 'ourselves' out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become."
What we need as a culture is to stop striving to be pursued by society and start allowing ourselves to be pursued by our Creator and in response, pursue the things of His nature.
[love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control]
Church: let's stop trying to be attractive, and individually start living honest, godly lives. Let's be transparent, not showy. Let us display Christ because He is what the world needs.
When you seek Christ – you find Him. People are seeking, let them find Him in us.
Let us lay down our selfish desires at His throne and pick up the desires of His heart. Let's lay down our relentless wanting and striving to be exciting, necessary, and desired… we already ARE those things in Christ! How great, right?!
When you seek Christ – you find Him.
Let's show off His nature. It's much better than ours.
When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.
Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.
Galatians 5:14-25
